Monday, May 29, 2017

Farmleigh - "(he) sent me ... an obscene photograph... I have it still."

Having discovered Farmleigh with the Experience Japan Festival, we'd always meant to go back there on a quiet day. And we brought Timber with us. Yes, dogs are allowed, which is great. Lovely morning. And a few sketches is always a bonus.

And I managed to find a Ulysses quote that vaguely connected to the area - well, we did pass the polo grounds in the Phoenix Park on our way to Farmleigh. And there is an exhibition called James Joyce in the Park currently on view in Farmleigh (I didn't see it!).

"THE HONOURABLE MRS MERVYN TALBOYS: .... Also me. Because he saw me on the polo ground of the Phoenix park at the match ... This plebeian Don Juan observed me from behind a hackney car and sent me in double envelopes an obscene photograph, such as are sold after dark on Paris boulevards, insulting to any lady. I have it still. "
Circe, Ulysses, James Joyce

Notes from Joyce Project on the matter:"In addition to these soft uses of sex to sell photographic products and services, there was a burgeoning pornography industry. Almost from its inception, the art of photography had been turned to prurient uses. In later Victorian times and the Edwardian decade (1901-10), the market was flooded with naughty picture postcards, ranging from titillating shots of scantily clad young women to graphic depictions of intercourse. Bloom knows these lewd postcards well. "